Belgium's most hated man, the convicted child rapist Marc Du-troux, insisted yesterday that he was protecting a schoolgirl from being killed when he abducted and serially abused her, as he clashed dramatically with his victim in court.
The former electrician, on trial over a horrific spate of killings in the mid-1990s, spoke out after 20-year-old Sabine Dardenne asked him why he did not hand her over to the alleged pedophile ring he claims was behind his actions.
"I have acknowledged my mistakes in this affair. I did not give her because I knew that she was going to be killed. When I stay with someone for a time, I end up becoming attached to them," he explained coldly.
PHOTO: EPA
Dardenne, appearing in court again a day after confronting her former tormentor face-to-face for the first time, reacted with barely disguised contempt to the claim.
"I am supposed to say thank-you, if I understand correctly," Dardenne replied, before asking presiding judge Stephane Goux to "make him be quiet."
Dutroux is on trial with three others including his ex-wife over the series of abductions, rapes and murders of girls in the mid-1990s which convulsed Belgium and shocked the world.
Dardenne was 12 years old when she was abducted near the southern town of Tournai on May 28, 1996. She was found on August 15 in a cellar of Dutroux's house in the southern city of Charleroi, along with Laetitia Delhez, who had been held for six days. Delhez was to give evidence later yesterday.
Dutroux, 47, said at the start of his trial last month that he abducted Dardenne on behalf of former businessman Michel Nihoul, who is also in the dock with him.
Dardenne, who has filed a civil lawsuit against Dutroux, on Monday gave the court a shocking account of her 80 days of sexual and other abuse at Dutroux's hands.
Dardenne regained her composure after an emotional start, asking Dutroux in a steady, challenging voice: "Why did you not liquidate me?"
"I acknowl-edge that I abused her. But for me there was never any question of liquidating her," Dutroux said on Monday.
Dardenne described how the manipulative Dutroux made her believe he was actually protecting her from a "wicked chief" who wanted to kill her. Dardenne said Dutroux convinced her that her parents had abandoned her after refusing to pay a ransom.
She said she even thanked him when stepping out of the concealed cell into the arms of a police officer on the day of her rescue.
Eight-year-olds Melissa Russo and Julie Lejeune allegedly died of starvation in Dutroux's squalid home near Charleroi while he was serving a prison sentence for a vehicle crime. It is alleged that two Flemish teenagers, An Marchal and Eefje Lambrecks, were also murdered. Dutroux blames his fellow defendants for their deaths.
Testimony from the two surviving victims is seen as crucial to an agonized and unfinished debate over whether the defendant was a "lone predator" or was part of a wider pedophile network, possibly involving leading figures from Belgian politics and society.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
RSS